On Andy Narell's warbling steel-drum clatter with its signature metallic glint—try the below album's closing track "Izo's Mood"—Christiaan's fast transient behaviour was on uncut display. The very word steel drums signifies what they're made of; originally from discarded oil barrels. If pans don't clank, something's off. Looking up synonyms for clatter, we come across crash, racket, clang, bang, bump, clash, shatter, pandemonium, clangor, hullabaloo, ballyhoo. Whatever your pick for best match, the lot's tenor is suggestive. The steel drum sound contains elements of noise and odd-order harmonics. Their absence neuters true timbre. The whole charm of the poor man's instrument crafted from industrial refuse now goes kaput like champagne without bubbles is flat. Hyperion resurrected the Iowa Steel Band of clattering pans. Cans of exploded treble like Susvara with their electrostatic aspect really took to it. Who needs a rum punch when hip-swaying infectiously joyous calypso music can transport one straight to Trinidad without the foggy brain and morning-after misery from the lethal combo of sugar and alcohol?

With original HifiMan Susvara with aftermarket fenestrated Dekoni pads.

Another instrument that tests truthful treble response is the pan flute. Take Ulrich Herkenhoff's The Art of Pan on which among others he performs Arcangelo Corelli's "Oboe Concerto in A Major" accompanied by church organ like the original Gheorghe Zamfir pairing on Romanian repertoire. The flute's ever shorter pipes require high air speed. Most tones embed some wind noise. That again is part of the instrument's true timbre and folksy charm. No matter how high Ulrich's classic play reaches, Hyperion seemed to follow faithfully without adding electronic hash. Likewise for Thomas Friedli's high D clarinet on the glorious "Adagio" from Johann Melchior Molter's Concerto in D major. That stubby blackwood traverses the same high octaves as Reinhold Friedrich's Baroque piccolo trumpet does on the composer's trumpet concertos. The mini clarinet can easily get shouty, nasal and unpleasant. Friedli altogether avoids those shadows even during his loudest highest peaks which at times emulate the trumpet's timbre and output though tonal transitions and trills quickly give away the true instrument. Hyperion made listening to this recording and Friedrich's deeply enjoyable even over the quick open but slightly lean HifiMan planar. Again, the amp's tuning artfully walked that edge of brilliance and HF energy without ever drawing blood.

Even the Jazz Manouche guitar of Django's descendants à la Birèli Lagrène, Joscho Stefan, Patrick 'Romane' Leguidecoq, Stochelo Rosenberg & Co. can fall afoul of prettifying when its particular twang and occasional glassiness even brittleness get neutered. Like hoarse Flamenco vocals, I adore players who modulate timbre from sonorous and pretty to edgy, sharp, hollow, piercing and many shades between. The more overtone bandwidth they manipulate, the more interesting and sophisticated their timbre grows. It's another musical dimension beyond the horizontal of melody and rhythm; beyond the vertical of harmonies; beyond dynamic gradations and space-based soundstaging which speakers further manipulate with setup. Amps that can only do pretty, soft, round, warm and dark quickly bore me. Capable of far more sheen, intensity and speed, our Serbian sun god traversed far wider tonal breadth. Its livelier responsiveness had just one counter indication. It made always-loud red-lined productions harder to take. Their objectionable wall-of-sound dynamic compression felt even more relentless and thick than usual.

Versus my Enleum AMP-23R, what I'll call Hyperion's special dispensation was two-pronged and like twinned faces of one coin: more loaded dynamic reflexes and wider textural bandwidth into incisive rawness. Now replace rawness with what the pipe 'n' slippers brigade might call blemishes. They're elements contrary to their preferred more homogenous prettiness. That hits upon the apparent contradiction I heard as the core of Ge's specialness. It never got ugly. Though it could peel out zing, blister, wiriness and metallic hues beyond where the AMP-23R ventures, it never felt objectionable, hyped or like an electronic artefact. It just felt closer to the encoded energy. Given Dragan's coupling capacitors, I found that surprising. It reminded me of what I call a mild 3rd-harmonic tuning of the Laiv Audio Harmony DAC on my desktop. It produces a certain blood-thinning quickening or freshness. Michael Lavorgna at Twittering Machines heard the same thing from it just couched in his own words. In his recent review of the tube-based LTA Aero DAC, he confessed to preferring its more relaxed take over the Laiv. Yet he awarded both; an important point. A good reviewer not only acknowledges personal preference but also specialness in components which play to contrary preferences. He'd probably prefer LTA's Velo headfi amp which I reviewed prior to the SAEQ's arrival. If we know a critic's tastes because they're clearly articulated, their dislikes are as useful as their likes. They tell us clearly what applies to our own needs and biases. Even though translating SAEQ as Srajan-Approved Exceptional Quality would be silly when nobody should care what one guy thinks, it very much applies today.

There's a blue tinge and coolish bite to Nils Petter Molvaer's trumpet on his Sulamadiana collab with Mino Cinelu which Hyperion passed on. I wasn't in the booth while this recording was made; nor that of any other. I couldn't possibly know how close or not the final master file supplied to Qobuz comes to what transpired in the studio then came down the microphone pipe to the console. All I can say is that vis-à-vis the Enleum, the SAEQ gave me snottier brassiness, Minu's assorted percussion more briskness and hot-knife staccato 'aha' on "Take the A# Train". To my ears, such jump factor relies on greased microdynamic response and properly vertical leading edges. These qualities Hyperion rendered livelier than the AMP-23R; without getting thin of tone or bleached on colour. That's why you could translate Dragan's brand name as my earlier selfie. His G.amp really hit my geez spot. Though my €6K/pr Acelec Model One monitors with their staggered 1st-order filters only rate 84dB/W, in my desktop's nearfield less than one watt plays them plenty loud for workspace purpose. Not only was Hyperion sufficient, for the reasons given I fancied it over my favourite Enleum in both speaker and HeadFi mode. Especially since it fit perfectly beneath my monitor display after all, I had the perfect spot for it. Must resist. What about more typical in-room speakers to honour Dragan's special request when popular perception conflates costly low-power desirability with direct-heated triodes not transistors plus 'unusual' speakers?